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Title: Insights into plant cell wall structure, architecture, and integrity using glycome profiling of native and AFEXTM -pre-treated biomass

Journal Article · · Journal of Experimental Botany
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erv107· OSTI ID:1293995
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States). Complex Carbohydrate Research Center; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC)
  2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Dept. of Chemical Engineering
  3. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Dept. of Chemical Engineering; Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

We report that cell walls, which constitute the bulk of plant biomass, vary considerably in their structure, composition, and architecture. Studies on plant cell walls can be conducted on both native and pre-treated plant biomass samples, allowing an enhanced understanding of these structural and compositional variations. Here glycome profiling was employed to determine the relative abundance of matrix polysaccharides in several phylogenetically distinct native and pre-treated plant biomasses. Eight distinct biomass types belonging to four different subgroups (i.e. monocot grasses, woody dicots, herbaceous dicots, and softwoods) were subjected to various regimes of AFEX™ (ammonia fiber expansion) pre-treatment [AFEX is a trademark of MBI, Lansing (http://www.mbi.org]. This approach allowed detailed analysis of close to 200 cell wall glycan epitopes and their relative extractability using a high-throughput platform. In general, irrespective of the phylogenetic origin, AFEX™ pre-treatment appeared to cause loosening and improved accessibility of various xylan epitope subclasses in most plant biomass materials studied. For most biomass types analysed, such loosening was also evident for other major non-cellulosic components including subclasses of pectin and xyloglucan epitopes. The studies also demonstrate that AFEX™ pre-treatment significantly reduced cell wall recalcitrance among diverse phylogenies (except softwoods) by inducing structural modifications to polysaccharides that were not detectable by conventional gross composition analyses. Lastly, we found that monitoring changes in cell wall glycan compositions and their relative extractability for untreated and pre-treated plant biomass can provide an improved understanding of variations in structure and composition of plant cell walls and delineate the role(s) of matrix polysaccharides in cell wall recalcitrance.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; FC02-07ER64494; DBI-0421683; IOS-0923992
OSTI ID:
1293995
Journal Information:
Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 66, Issue 14; ISSN 0022-0957
Publisher:
Oxford University PressCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 42 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (14)

Evaluating the Role of Ultrasonication-Assisted Alkali Pretreatment and Enzymatic Hydrolysis on Cellwall Polysaccharides of Pennisetum Grass Varieties as Potential Biofuel Feedstock journal January 2019
Probing the role of cation-π interaction in the thermotolerance and catalytic performance of endo-polygalacturonases journal December 2016
Determination of glycoside hydrolase specificities during hydrolysis of plant cell walls using glycome profiling journal February 2017
Comprehensive characterization of non-cellulosic recalcitrant cell wall carbohydrates in unhydrolyzed solids from AFEX-pretreated corn stover journal March 2017
Identification of developmental stage and anatomical fraction contributions to cell wall recalcitrance in switchgrass journal July 2017
Xylan epitope profiling: an enhanced approach to study organ development-dependent changes in xylan structure, biosynthesis, and deposition in plant cell walls journal November 2017
Dynamic changes in transcriptome and cell wall composition underlying brassinosteroid-mediated lignification of switchgrass suspension cells journal November 2017
Conversion of lignocellulosic agave residues into liquid biofuels using an AFEX™-based biorefinery journal January 2018
Comparative genome analysis indicates high evolutionary potential of pathogenicity genes in Colletotrichum tanaceti journal May 2019
Immunological Approaches to Biomass Characterization and Utilization journal October 2015
A Profusion of Molecular Scissors for Pectins: Classification, Expression, and Functions of Plant Polygalacturonases journal August 2018
Phytolith Formation in Plants: From Soil to Cell journal July 2019
Catalysts of plant cell wall loosening journal January 2016
Report on the Current Inventory of the Toolbox for Plant Cell Wall Analysis: Proteinaceous and Small Molecular Probes journal May 2018